"The cause of this disadvantage is the same with that of every other description, the want of attention of the officers to the orders of the army, and to the conduct of their men, and the consequent want of authority over their conduct. Certain men of each company should be appointed to cut and bring in wood, others to fetch water, and others to get the meat, &c., to be cooked; and it would soon be found, if this practice were daily enforced, and a particular hour for seeing the dinners, and for the men dining named, as it ought to be, equally as for the parade, that cooking would no longer require the inconvenient length of time which it has lately been found to take, and that the soldiers would not be exposed to the privation of their food at the moment at which the army may be engaged in operations with the enemy. "You will, of course, give your attention to the field exercise and discipline of the troops. It is very desireable, that the soldiers should not lose the habit of marching; and the divisions should march ten or twelve miles twice in each week, if the weather should permit, and the roads in the neighbourhood of the cantonments of the division should be dry. But I repeat, that the great object of the attention of the general and field officers must be, to get the captains and subalterns of regiments to understand and perform the duties required of them, as the only mode by which the discipline and efficiency of the army can be restored and maintained during the next campaign. "I have the honour to be, &c. &c. (Signed) "Wellington. "_To the Officer commanding -- Division._" The Duke of Wellington in this letter again accuses the officers of being, in a great measure, the cause of irregularities, by their neglect of duty; nevertheless, I still venture to attribute the bad conduct of the soldiers more particularly to what I am convinced was the chief cause, viz. the description of men they had to deal with. As a proof of this, we find what follows in a general order, dated Vizar, 28th February, 1810. "No. 6. The Commander of the Forces draws the attention of the soldiers of the army to the consequences of the crimes committed by the soldiers thus ordered for execution, under the sentence of a General Court-Martial. Cornelius McGuire, of the 27th regiment, and George Chambers, of the 88th regiment, committed a crime, which the Commander of the Forces is concerned to observe is too common in this army; they robbed and ill-treated an inhabitant of this country, whom they met on the road; a crime which the Commander of the Forces is determined in no instance to forgive. "The soldiers of the army have been invariably well treated by the inhabitants of Portugal, and the frequent instances which have occurred of their being robbed and ill treated, and of murder being committed, by soldiers who straggle from their detachments on a march, are a disgrace to the character of this army, and of the British nation.